The Klein family though, saved the day and possibly the life of a 21-year-old surfer once they realized he was waving for help and not hello.

“I turned around thinking well maybe he was waving to somebody on a balcony. Then when he got a little closer in you could tell he was yelling for help and his arms were waving and he was really panicked,” she says.

While she called 911 her husband Mark Klein jumped in to help get the surfer out.

“The police and fire department got here real fast,” he says.

Once they arrived around 2:30 p.m., they treated injuries on the man's left leg, which he'd received just minutes after he got in the water.

“Just looked like a cut with a knife almost, but he was in a lot of pain,” Mark Klein says.

The surfer was conscious though and taken to the Outer Banks Hospital for further care.

“Hopefully he's okay,” Kim says. “I don't know what bite him but he had like three marks one by his ankle and two on the side of his feet,” Mark says.

Duck officials say it was an encounter with a marine animal that maybe could have been a shark, or maybe not.

“I know people like to jump to a conclusion but it could be blue fish or other things as well so we really don't know enough to speculate,” says Duck’s Director of Public Information, Denise Walsh.

Or confirm if this was, as the surfer told witnesses, a shark attack.

“That's what he said he thought,” says Kim Klein. “I mean that's the first thing you think of when you're getting bite by something, right.”

But then again...

“You don't stop to say what bite me you just get the heck out of there,” Mark says.